Prosecution in Lucas murder trial questions defendant's alibi, ammo

COLUMBIA - Jurors listened to the state lay out its case against murder suspect Darious Lucas during the second day of his trial on Wednesday.

Lucas was charged last year with two counts of first degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action in the September 2015 deaths of James Richardson of Columbia and Kenneth Long of Mexico.

Using details about the ammunition involved in the crime, the prosecution attempted to shoot holes in the defense's case.

Boone County detectives said the bullets that killed Richardson and Long are extremely rare. During his testimony Wednesday, Sergeant Britt Shea said only three boxes of the bullets—sold under the brand name G2 Research R.I.P.—had been purchased in Boone County at the time of the shootings.

"It's a very unique type of ammunition," Shea said.

Detective Matt Vessar also testified Wednesday. He said, over his lengthy law enforcement career, he had "never been in contact with this type of ammo before."

Detectives said Lucas' girlfriend, Adrian Carpenter, was seen purchasing a box of that ammunition in surveillance videos from the only local gun shop that sold the ammo.

During Wednesday's proceedings, jurors watched a video of Vessar questioning Lucas several weeks after the murders in October 2015.

In the video, Lucas volunteers information about his whereabouts on Sept. 18 and 19--the day of and the day after the murders--unprompted by detectives. The detectives hadn't yet brought up the murders of Richardson and Long at that point in the interview.

According to detectives, Lucas said he left Columbia with his girlfriend around 11 p.m. on Sept. 18 for a trip to celebrate his birthday. Their destination was Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio—about a nine-and-a-half hour drive from Columbia. If Lucas and Carpenter left at 11 p.m., that would have established Lucas' alibi and put him away from the crime scene at the time of the murders—just before midnight on the 18th.

But Vessar said phone records indicate that Lucas was not where he said he was the night of the crime. Phone records place him in Missouri at the time of the crime. According to the records, Vessar said, Lucas and Carpenter were not heading toward Ohio on I-70 until 2:30 a.m.